The Blows We're Dealt
by whathappenedtoelliecreed18
Summary: "It ain't the blows we're dealt that matter, but the ones we survive." - Stephen King. Bobby's estranged daughter, Collynn, has been dealt enough blows in life to be considered a survivor. What happens when she gets herself into more trouble than she can handle? A certain Scotsman may be the difference between simply surviving and truly living for Collynn. Chibs x OC
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hi and thanks for checking out my fic! It was a plot that I just couldn't get out of my head. This is actually my first SOA fic, so please be gentle. If you notice any inaccuracies, please assume that they are intentional, as this story will not be canon-compliant.

Disclaimer: I own nothing! Literally. I own absolutely nothing.

"It ain't the blows we're dealt that matter, but the ones we survive." - Stephen King. Bobby's estranged daughter, Collynn, has been dealt enough blows in life to be considered a survivor. What happens when she gets herself into more trouble than she can handle? A certain Scotsman may be the difference between simply surviving and truly living for Collynn.

Bobby Munson closed his eyes. It had been a long fucking day. He and the rest of the Sons had just returned to Charming from patching over the Devil's Tribe in Indian Hills. Bobby was hoping for a moment to lay on the couch in the clubhouse, spark up a joint, and let a croweater go to town on him.

Just as he was bringing a lighter to his joint, his cell phone rang. He was half-tempted to ignore it, but knew that it could be important. Shit was going down with the Mayans, and he couldn't use the excuse of getting his dick wet if he missed something big.

Bobby furrowed a brow and waved off the croweater who was currently seated in his lap. His daughter was calling him. It was nearly three in the morning on a Wednesday night. His stomach dropped when he thought about all the reasons that she could be calling.

When he was first patched into SAMCRO, Bobby had an old lady. They had tried to play house when he moved to Charming, living together, really trying to be parents, but it was not meant to happen. When his daughter was three, she left him, and moved them both to San Francisco to "start over."

Bobby and his oldest, Collynn, had a good relationship. They got together a few times throughout the year, usually around Christmas and each of their birthdays, but not in Charming. As much as he loved his club, Bobby didn't want Collynn being involved in anything less than savory. Aside from the first few years of being the club baby girl, she didn't know his life, and he was okay with that.

He cringed inwardly and steeled himself for whatever was waiting for him on the other end of the call.

"Hey, Collynn, baby. What's up?"

The line was quiet for a few moments before he heard a quiet sob. "Daddy, he's dead."

Every hair on Bobby's body stood on end as Collynn cried on the phone. She hadn't called him "daddy" in years. She started hiccupping and sobbing out the words too quickly for him to understand.

"H-he was fucking h-hitting me. Too much blood." It felt like ice water had been thrown onto him. She was still crying manically into the phone.

"Slow down, baby girl. What happened?" Bobby stood up, looking for the keys to the TM van. When he spotted them on the bar top, he snagged them.

"I killed him!" She cried shrilly into the phone. "I hit him over and over and over. Oh god. What have I done?"

"Collynn, where are you? I'm coming. We're going to fix this. Just, hang on, baby, and tell me where you are." Bobby hustled over to the pool table, where Tig had his face enthusiastically buried in the tits of a sweetbutt. He grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him away, still waiting for his daughter to respond to him.

"I-I'm at home." She sobbed freely into the phone, sounding so scared. Her fear made Bobby want to throw up.

"Stay put, baby girl. I'm coming to get you." Bobby said as comfortingly as he possibly could into the phone. "Lock the door. I'll be there in three hours. Don't touch anything. I'll fix it. I love you, pumpkin." If the scenario had been any different, he would have felt mildly embarrassed at the endearment, but now was not the time for that shit.

"I love you, too, daddy." The line disconnected and he swore. She must have hung up.

Tig glared down at him over interrupting his motorboating session with the skanky sweetbutt. "What the fuck, man?"

Bobby returned the glare, his filled with far more venom than Tig's. "Call the fucking cleaner. We have shit to take care of tonight. My kid needs me. And by extension, you. She fucking killed someone."

Tig's eyes grew wide. "Collynn? Jesus Christ." Tig was always the person to call when someone gets murdered. Grass is green, the sky is blue, and you call Tig when someone kills someone.

His portly friend just gave him another glare to get his ass in gear. "We need to go. Now." 

A few hours later, in San Francisco, the sun was threatening to break over the horizon. Collynn Rourke was sitting on the floor of her kitchen, hugging her knees to her chest, and staring at the face of a man that was once handsome and loving. Her large brindle boxer, Maggie, laid her body protectively over Collynn's lap.

That face was now a bloody, caved-in mess, thanks to the cast iron skillet that she used to fight him off. Everything had happened so quickly.

Every time she shut her eyes, she replayed the entire night. She had been in the middle of making a midnight snack after having to stay at work late, and her fiancé started accusing her of cheating. Cheating had been one of his favorite new ways to pick a fight with the young woman. It had escalated to screaming matches a few times, but had never gone further, until that night.

While she was scanning the cupboards for the box of Pop-Tarts that she _knew_ that she had put in there that morning, Trent had grabbed her by the hair and smashed her face into the cabinet door in front of her. After that, everything was a blur.

The only thing that she clearly remembers after that first hit was lying on the floor, with his face hovering over hers, and swinging the heavy skillet toward his face. She doesn't even remember how she got the skillet in the first place. When she was pulled out of shock, she heard Maggie going ballistic in the bathroom. Trent had locked her in there before he decided to lay a hand on Collynn. The angry dog had very nearly chewed through the door to get to her.

Collynn knew vaguely that she was hurt, but her entire body felt numb. She had no idea how she was going to fix this. She just ruined her career. Collynn was a couple of months into being an associate at a large corporate criminal defense law firm. It was all she had worked for for years. Gone. Completely gone. Now she was going to prison. Her life was over.

Collynn had called her father because, even though she didn't know details, she knew he was into some shady shit. The MC that he was involved in wasn't just a group of Harley enthusiasts, there was definitely more there than that.

Her heart leapt into her throat when she heard footsteps outside her door and a heavy knock. She bolted upright, vaulting the dead body and pool of blood in her kitchen to answer the door. Maggie was hot on her heels, snarling at the door, practically frothing at the mouth to protect Collynn.

Standing on her tiny front porch was her dad. He looked like this trip had aged him by thirty years at least. She threw herself into his arms and started sobbing all over again. Even though she had about two inches in height on him, she still felt so small.

Bobby let her cry while he motioned for Tig to start on the mess while they wait for the cleaner to show up. They stood in her doorway for about ten minutes while Tig took a look around.

Collynn's sobs turned into hiccups and she slowly pulled away from her dad. He grasped her chin and surveyed her face, his other fist curling tightly. If the fucker laying on the floor wasn't already dead, Bobby Munson would have killed him himself.

There was a deep gash on her forehead, nearly in her hairline, allowing her face to become awash in her own blood. Her nose was also broken, and there were handprints around her throat.

"Don't worry, dad. The other guy looks worse." Collynn tried to joke weakly, giving her dad a watery smile.

"He truly does, big man. You put that son of a bitch down." Tig chose that moment to emerge from the kitchen. "Go take a shower and put on clean clothes. Put your bloody clothes in this bag. We'll take care of everything, kitten." Collynn gave him a disdainful look at the nickname. She was not a kitten, dammit.

Tig handed the young woman a plastic trash bag and frowned deeply. He could remember when she was born. The whole club had crowded into the hospital room. How could the tiny blob of mush that he held at the hospital twenty-five years ago be the woman standing in front of him today?

She nodded quietly, barely catching the quiet sentence that Tig muttered to Bobby. "His face looks like fucking hamburger meat. She did good."

In a moment of bravery, she called out shakily. "Don't fucking throw out that skillet! It's too goddamn good to beat people with." Collynn heard the slightly stressed laughter come from her dad and Tig. She vaguely remembered Tig. Vaguely in the sense that she knew who he was, but couldn't remember anything else about him.

Contrary to her bold words, more tears squeezed out of her tear ducts as she walked down the hall to the bathroom, Maggie trotting along beside her. When she surveyed the damage to the bathroom, she was proud of her girl. The inside of the bathroom door was nearly shredded, and the dog had been about a centimeter away from breaking through the door.

Carefully, she peeled off her clothes and placed them into the plastic bag that Tig had given her. She couldn't tell what the temperature of the water was when she stepped under the spray of the shower. By the time she was done rinsing out her hair, the water that pooled at her feet was a bright pink, tinged with blood.

After scrubbing her entire body for what felt like an hour, she stepped out of the shower and stood in front of the floor length mirror in the bathroom. She really needed to survey the damage.

Collynn met her own icy blue gaze in the mirror as she studied herself. Her normally bright, honey blonde, curly hair hung in a wet pile on her shoulder. The broken cartilage of her nose seemed to stick out like a goddamn neon sign as the bruising had begun to spread across her face and around her eyes.

The gash on her forehead was still trickling blood, so she bundled up a washcloth and pressed it to the wound. She hissed in pain as it did its job. While she tended her forehead, Collynn pushed back her hair and noticed that the fucker had ripped out one of her earrings. The forked skin that once held her earring made her want to gag, but she kept going.

On her long, pale neck, two distinct handprints were cropping up. It made her blood boil and she wanted to go further mutilate the body lying on her kitchen floor. She had to stop looking at her reflection and put a towel over the mirrored medicine cabinet.

Collynn wasn't exactly a vain person, but, like nearly every other young woman out there, she cared about her appearance. She liked to think that she was pretty, in a girl next door sort of way. She had long, curly blonde hair that falls to the middle of her back, and bright blue eyes. She wasn't a little girl, standing at 5'10" with dangerous curves.

Collynn rolled her eyes. No child of Bobby Munson could ever be considered "small." Instead, she had a small belly that seemed to be proportionate with her broad shoulders, narrow waist, wide hips, and full chest. Her chub made her body look more soft and feminine where she would otherwise be built like a linebacker. Her weight had been something that she had struggled with for many years. Hell, she still struggled with it sometimes, but it no longer forced her into a cycle of extreme dieting and binge eating.

She had several strategically hidden tattoos, including a half-sleeve that wrapped around her shoulder blade and down to her elbow that showcased all of her favorite horror movies.

Her face, as mangled as it was at the moment, was classically pretty, with round doe-eyes, high cheekbones, and full lips. Collynn cringed to think about her nose. It wasn't looking so good. It was going to be a bitch to have reset.

Wrapped in a fluffy towel, Collynn tiptoed across the hall to her room. She was infinitely glad for the fact that she and Trent hadn't pulled the trigger and moved in together yet. He had begun to spend more and more time at her small house, but he hadn't dragged all of his shit over yet.

Quietly, she pulled on a worn pair of jeans that were fairly holey and a hoodie. The hoodie blessedly hid the bruises that had formed on her neck. Her mind had gone blank, the gore of the previous night thankfully staying locked into the safe inside of her.

When she emerged into the kitchen, expecting to see a dead body still sprawled across the floor. To her surprise, her kitchen was spotless. Her head whipped around, and she saw her dad and Tig sprawled across her living room couch and chair, watching television.

"He's gone?" She whispered, catching their attention.

Bobby gave her a small smile, "Like he was never here, sweetheart. We need to get you back to Charming to get the rest of this sorted out. And have our medic take a look at you. You definitely need some attention."

Collynn nodded solemnly and retreated to her bedroom to gather her shoes, purse, and an extra change of clothing. She cursed loudly, she needed to do something about her job. Luckily, she had no court hearings for the rest of the week, but she would need to send an email to her boss to let her know that she wouldn't be in the office.

Sighing, she sat on her bed, sending an email to her boss and a text to her neighbor, begging him to let himself in to take care of Maggie. She had a "family emergency" to attend to.

Her face had begun to throb, the shock of the night finally wearing off. She needed to get the fuck out of her house before she started climbing the walls. 

Bobby, Tig, and Collynn pulled into the lot at Teller-Morrow Automotive just as the sun hit its peak, sitting high in the clear sky.

The hours in the van on the way back to Charming passed much too quickly for Collynn. She had finally drifted off for the first time, and it felt like she had only been asleep for three minutes.

Collynn had a good life. She had two parents who loved her, albeit divorced, she rented a small house near her office, and she had previously had a loving fiancé. She and Trent had known each other since they were in college.

Trent was an academic. She always had admired that about him. He was so damn quick and clever. He was handsome in a harmless, nerdy sort of way. They were cut from the same cloth, determined, smart, and ambitious. Collynn and Trent worked like a well-oiled machine together, until their relationship shifted a few months previous. Trent had begun to drink and accuse Collynn of sleeping around.

She ground her teeth when she thought about some of the vitriol that he had spewed at her recently, asking if she had liked being on her knees for the partner at the firm she had just started at.

Her forehead had still yet to completely stop bleeding. It seemed that every time it would finally trickle to a stop, something would happen that would reopen the cut. She had resigned herself to leaning on a McDonald's napkin against the wall of the van to keep it from bleeding.

Taking a deep breath to ground herself, she tugged her hood up onto her head, trying to expose the least amount of people as possible to her unfortunate facial situation. Her golden blonde curls tumbled out of the hood and around either side of her face.

Collynn smiled at her dad when he offered her a hand down from the old black panel van and into the scorching sunlight. The garage was what she had remembered. The memories that she had of TM were aged and almost sepia-toned. They were the sort of memories that you really had to focus on to discern whether or not you had actually dreamed it.

"Thanks, daddy." Her voice was small and quiet as she kept her head down. Collynn was surprised at how well she was able to keep her composure. Her past twenty-four hours had been hellacious to say the least.

"Don't mention it, pumpkin." Collynn's cheeks burned at her childhood nickname. She hadn't heard it in a while.

Tig flanked her other side, resting his arm lightly across her shoulders. She looked up at him and gave him a grateful smile, which he returned. He reached inside his kutte and pulled out a small Ziploc baggie that made her sigh in contentment.

"You're probably going to need this, darlin'." Tig gave her a shit eating grin, his gray eyes dancing mischievously.

"Oh, fuck yes." Collynn had to bite back a moan as she snagged the baggie of weed from Tig. He then produced a small piece and a lighter. "You're a man after my own heart, Tig."

"Shit, darlin'. Don't do to me what you did to the last guy after your heart." He winked at her as she picked apart the buds, reveling at the slightly resin-y coating that was left on her fingers.

She laughed too hard at the shitty joke and packed the bowl tightly as they entered the clubhouse. It was dark and gritty, but it smelled homey to the young woman. Bobby and Tig led her over to one of the well-worn leather couches.

"I'm going to go grab Chibs. You might want to get her a little more than pot." Tig said lowly to Bobby, hoping Collynn wouldn't hear. She cringed, knowing that the impromptu doctor's visit was not going to be a fun one. It goes without saying that she couldn't very well go to the emergency room on the same day that her fiancé goes missing. It's True Crime 101. No body, no motive, no proof.

"Yeah, I thought as much." Bobby sighed and walked behind the bar, pulling out a bottle of Don Julio Real Tequila and a bottle of Jim Beam. "Can't let you get fucked up by yourself, pumpkin." He smiled at her and she traded him the pipe and lighter for the bottle of tequila.

"My favorite? Oh, you shouldn't have," she chuckled drily, taking a long slug from the bottle. The burn from the alcohol burnt her nose, making her eyes water.

"What can I say? Only the best for my baby girl." Bobby smirked back at her, cracking into his own bottle. This was about the extent of their relationship, getting stoned and tossing banter back and forth. It took a lot to rattle members of the Munson/Rourke family; they'd both seen a lot of shit.

For about a half hour, they sat, passing the pipe back and forth between them, Collynn hitting a little harder than her dad, but the silence was companionable. Collynn's brain was getting mercifully fuzzy, and she had drank enough of the expensive tequila that her lips were finally becoming numb, the first sign that she was, indeed, drunk.

"M'ready. Somebody break my nose," she slurred contentedly. Bobby wheezed a laugh and she heard a couple of other laughs join in. She had to take a moment to make sure that she wasn't just multiplying sounds the way that her vision would soon be, and she looked around, gaze locking in on Tig who had another biker in tow.

"Here, pumpkin, a couple more good drinks, and you won't remember any of this tomorrow." Bobby nudged the bottle at her again and held his out to clink it against hers in cheers. She nodded glumly and tilted the bottle into the air, not even tasting the tang of the tequila anymore.

Shaking her head lightly, she focused on Tig and their medic that he had with him.

"Sorry for tha wait, love. Had ta stop by the hospital for some more supplies. Yer da said that you had quite tha night."

Collynn locked eyes—well she tried to, anyway—with the man who was speaking. He was a roguishly handsome man probably in his mid-forties. His Scottish brogue was a little hard for her to decipher in her inebriated state, but she managed.

"S'fine, Mr. Doctor. Just fix my face, please."

A wide grin broke across the Scotsman's face, showcasing dimples as well as two deep scars that ran from the corners of his mouth and almost to his ears. Collynn had to check herself before she asked about the Glasgow Grin etched into the man's handsome face. That was definitely not a first conversation sort of topic. The Scotsman's smile reached his kind brown eyes. Good god damn, this man was so handsome. She had always had a soft spot for older men, and this guy was downright delectable.

"Chibs is fine, love. No need ta be so formal. Mr. Doctor was me da." The small joke made Collynn cackle, even if no one else thought it was as funny as she did.

"Like a knife? Cool name! I'm Collynn, because my parents thought I was going to be a boy!" Collynn giggled. The tiny sober self that was currently trapped inside her hazy brain was face-palming up a storm. Chibs' smile only grew as he heard her prattle on about nothing he could actually discern.

Bobby rolled his eyes, much more sober than his daughter. "She got the shit beat out of her, Chibs. The asshole broke her nose, busted her head open, and ripped her earring out. Please patch her up. I'm keeping her here for the weekend, so we can figure out her shit."

Chibs nodded soberly. He assessed the young woman's injuries and his fist clenched tighter and tighter. He didn't know the whole story, having only just woken up not too long before he got the SOS text from Tig, but he knew that Bobby and Tig wouldn't be sitting in front of him so calmly if the fucker that hurt her was still with the land of the living.

Collynn took a deep breath as Chibs donned a pair of gloves and placed his fingertips on either side of her nose. She flailed wildly for Bobby's hand and tried not to hyperventilate in anticipation. It had hurt enough to have her nose broken the first time.

"Arigh', love. I'm gonna count ta three, an' then I'm gonna reset yer nose. It's gonna hurt like a bitch, but it'll be over soon." Chibs tried to soothe her as best he could while gently prodding the broken cartilage, wanting to realign the break as perfectly as he could.

The son of a bitch snapped her nose back into place on the two-count and Collynn howled in pain. It was almost like fireworks had exploded behind her eyes.

"Shit! Mother fucker! You said you were counting to three, you limey bastard!" She cried out. She was too drunk for this fake-out nonsense. Tears coursed down her bruised cheeks.

Chibs was torn between chuckling and feeling bad for causing the young woman any more pain. Collynn's mother had already taken her from Charming by the time Chibs was patched into SAMCRO, but Bobby always spoke proudly of his daughter. Now, he finally had a face to put to all of the stories that he heard from his portly friend.

Even past all of the bruising, he could tell that she was a lovely girl. Her wide blue eyes were expressive and full of fire and full lips that had stretched into a mirthful smile only a moment before.

"That was the worst warning ever, Chibby." Collynn pouted before bringing a tissue up to stem the flow of blood that had recently started all over from her nose.

"Sorry, love." He wasn't sorry. It would have hurt worse when she was expecting it. That way, he had saved her a moment of anticipation and worry.

"S'okay. Just don't lie to me again, okay?" She had finally turned the corner into being a sappy drunk.

"Alrigh'."

"Pinky promise?" She held a hand out to him, pinky outstretched. Chibs rolled his eyes and wrapped his pinky finger around hers.

"Pinky promise, love. Now I'm going to stitch up your ear. It won't hurt nearly as much as yer nose did, but it won' feel ta good either."

Collynn shrugged and let Chibs finish patching her up. Her eyes had begun to grow heavy while he was stitching up her forehead, and by the time he was done, she was only a tick away from being completely gone to the world.

"C'mon, kitten. Let's get you into one of the apartments. Then you can sleep all you want." Tig pulled the pliable girl to her feet, allowing her to catch her bearings.

Chibs was surprised when he saw the young woman standing. She was much taller than he had originally thought, her forehead coming to about eye-level with him. He also admired her soft curves that were slightly hidden by the sweatshirt that she was wearing. Chibs needed to get a grip. Bobby would sure as hell not appreciate him checking out his daughter.

Chibs watched as Tig led her to the stairs and helped her up and into one of the cleaner apartments that were in the clubhouse. _God, she had a nice arse too._


	2. Chapter 2

Collynn was awake for a long time before she dared to open her eyes. Was she dead? Was she in hell for killing that bastard? Because she was pretty sure that this is what hell would feel like. She pondered everything that had happened in the previous twenty-four hours…well at least as much as her hungover brain would allow her.

She smiled contentedly as she remembered being tucked in like a little kid and promptly passing out a while ago. She had no idea how long she'd been asleep or what time it was. All she knew was that she felt like she had just gotten run over by a Mac truck, and then backed over a few times for good measure.

She burrowed down underneath the comforter for a few moments, enjoying the sense of security that the heavy blanket provided her with. Inhaling as deeply as her battered nose would allow, she hummed in pleasure at the smell of leather and men's cologne. There was a hint of cigarette smoke underneath.

After she laid on the comfy mattress for what felt like hours with her eyes closed, she hazarded opening one eye. Then the other. Jesus Christ it was bright in there. The numbers on the alarm clock that sat sentry next to the bed were a jumble of red neon for a moment until they slowly rounded themselves into focus. 10:24 A.M. Collynn groaned. She'd slept for close to sixteen hours. However, it wasn't as if she didn't need it.

Tossing the thick comforter back off of her, she noticed that she was still clothed in her hoodie and jeans. Whoever had tucked her in the previous day had removed her red Converse and sat them on the floor by the foot of the bed.

Collynn crept over to where someone had dropped off her duffle bag for her and pulled out a black tank top and another pair of clean jeans. After changing quickly, she peered at herself in the small bathroom mirror. The black thread of the stitches stood out in stark contrast to her pale skin and the mottled bruising had settled itself underneath her eyes. Luckily, some of the swelling in her nose had gone down, reducing it almost back to the size of the cute button that it normally was.

She frowned deeply at her reflection and hung a bath towel over that mirror as well. She really just didn't want to look at herself. Heaving a sigh, she combed through her curls with her fingers and plaited it quickly into a dutch braid. That would have to do for the day.

With her entire body protesting, she made her way down the steps from the apartments and into the clubhouse. It was blissfully quiet as she trekked to the garage in the hopes of finding her dad or Tig. Any familiar face would do at the moment.

"Collynn!" She nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the feminine voice behind her. She put a steadying hand over her heart and smiled at Gemma Teller-Morrow. Gemma was another person that she vaguely remembered, but couldn't quite be sure. Collynn had no idea how to react to her.

Whirling around far too quickly for her hungover body to handle, she was face to face with Gemma. With one look at her, anyone could tell that she was a ball buster. She was nearly as tall as Collynn, back straight and chin held proudly high. She had a soft look on her face as she surveyed Collynn's.

Collynn was flooded with relief. She didn't want to be the target of anyone's ire today.

"I hear you're pretty handy in the kitchen." Gemma started with a smirk and Collynn returned it in spite of herself.

"I can hold my own."

"Well, I've got a customer waiting for me in the office. If there's anything I can do, you let me know, baby. Especially if you want to talk." Gemma gave her a firm squeeze of the shoulders and marched back toward the TM office where she was stationed.

Collynn smiled. It felt good to be around people who gave a shit. She hadn't had that in a long time. Collynn's relationship with her mother was terrible. Lilian Rourke was a flighty piece of work. After leaving Charming, her mother had joined a commune outside of Oakland, bringing Collynn along with her. It had been nice, and the people kind, but it didn't last. Her mother had eventually grown bored with the small community of gentle hippies and went on to find bigger and better.

She had moved around a lot in her adolescence; her mother was more of the transient type than anyone had given her credit for, hopping from man to man and dragging her daughter along for the ride. All of the men that her mother had dated were nice enough, but they either saw her as a consolation prize or a nuisance, never really taking interest in her. Collynn was only twenty-five, but her mother was already on husband number four.

"Hey, Kitten!" For the second time that morning, she had been snuck up on. It wasn't something that she traditionally let happen.

She scowled at Tig with mock indignation. "Don't call me that. I'm not a kitten. At the very least, I'm a ferocious goddamn hyena."

"Whatever you say." He shrugged and looked down at her. "How are you doing?"

"Oh, you know. I'm hiding out with a motorcycle club because I imploded my life by brutally murdering my fiancé. Typical Friday. I'm waiting on the wall of trauma to come crashing down on me." Collynn raised both of her hands in a shrug. "What's a girl to do?"

"Well, you've got options, darlin'. You could act like he never existed and go back home to your fancy job. You could move to Charming. You could do whatever your little heart desires."

"I don't know if I can go back to that house." Her voice was quiet, and she was almost ashamed at letting anything get past her mask of false bravado.

"Then you don't have to." Tig made it sound way too easy. Surely it couldn't be that easy.

"It's way easier said than done, Tiggy."

"You're a lawyer aren't ya? I'm sure you could find a great job anywhere you want to."

"Yeah. Don't remind me. I have to be in court on Monday looking like I got into a fight with a chainsaw and lost."

Tig barked a laugh. "Wouldn't some makeup work for your nose?"

"Here, let me break your nose twice, and then try and dab _anything_ in that general direction. Nothing is touching this beak, thanks."

"Point taken." He raised his hands in surrender. Collynn liked Tig. He was honest, and never failed to say something funny, even if it is at her expense.

"Do you know where my dad is? I really need to talk to him."

Tig smirked. "He's over at Cara Cara helping with the books."

"Cara Cara?"

"Porn studio, love." She heard an accented rumble behind her and she jumped again.

"Jesus Christ! I'm getting all of you people bells! Quit sneaking up on me!" She looked quite put out as she turned to face the Scot. He was taller than she was by several inches and much more handsome now that she was sober. Her cheeks reddened when she met his deep brown eyes.

Collynn tried to scan him as discreetly as possible, though she was sure that she was failing miserably. He was lean, but sturdy looking, with strong looking arms and biceps. He was wearing his TM Auto work shirt with the sleeves cut off and she had to make a conscious effort not to drool. She'd never been faced with someone so ruggedly…masculine.

"Glad ta know tha' I've still got some stealth left in me." Chibs chuckled and her cheeks reddened even further.

"Yeah, you're like a giant cat. Tig, you should be calling him Kitten, not me," Collynn quipped and Chibs grinned down at her, showing off his dimples again.

When he had seen her standing next to Tig out on the shop floor, he couldn't resist going over to talk to her when she had a clear head. His assessment had been right the night before. She was gorgeous. His fists tightened in anger when he saw the handprints on her throat that had just begun to fade, but he made no mention of them. It was too damn hot to spook her back into wearing a hooded sweatshirt just to cover the marks.

"So you guys deal in porn?"

Tig shook his head. "Not at the moment. The owner is a friend of the club, and she's been a little overwhelmed lately. Why? Are you adding porn star to your list of options?"

If Tig was hoping to rattle her, he was barking up the wrong tree. "It's crossed my mind. I'm not nearly coordinated enough to be a stripper, but sex is one of the things that I can do." Collynn's response was monotone, barely keeping a straight face as she considered the option with mock seriousness. "No, you fucking idiot. I was just wondering what business my dad had at a porn studio." Collynn gave a delicate shudder.

"Ever since he had ta quit bein' Bobby Elvis at Lake Tahoe, he been doin' tha accountin' at Cara Cara. Louanne can' balance a checkbook fer shite." Collynn frowned at Chibs' explanation.

She knew that the Elvis impersonations were something that her dad not only loved, but was good at. She could remember telling all of the kids in her class in kindergarten that her daddy was Elvis.

"I didn't know he wasn't doing it anymore. We haven't seen each other since before Christmas." Collynn stated glumly. It was already July. "Can someone take me over to him? I really need to get some shit straightened out with this whole mess."

"I'll run ya over on my bike, love. Give me a minute or two, an' I'll meet ya out front." She smiled gratefully at Chibs' offer, her cheeks coloring once again.

"Thanks, Chibs. I really appreciate it." Collynn peeked up at him and caught him looking back at her with a smile on his face.

"Not a problem."

Tig wasn't an idiot, no matter what Collynn had just said about him. He knew the looks that passed between them. Tig was really just a matchmaker at heart. The prospect of a new challenge added a new spring in his step as he left Collynn to go discuss the new events with his meddling partner in crime. If anyone loved to play Cupid, it was Gemma Teller-Morrow.

Collynn waited dutifully for Chibs to emerge from the garage as she sat on a picnic table out front. The sun was slowly baking her pale skin to a crisp, but she enjoyed being outside. She hadn't had the chance to spend any actual time outdoors lately. Normally, every few days, she would load Maggie up into her ancient Shelby that had definitely been in better shape and go hiking. At the very least, she and Maggie would go running around her neighborhood.

Ever since she had gotten her new job, Collynn hadn't had a chance to breathe, so she was enjoying the fresh air for the time being.

Chibs met her at the picnic table, donning his kutte, and offered her a helmet and a piece of gauze. She gave him a confused look when she took the gauze from him and he smiled at her. "Ya migh' want ta cover yer stiches, so tha helmet don't bother 'em."

Collynn gave him a grateful smile. "Thanks for being so considerate. Which bike is yours?"

Chibs pointed to a matte black Dyna. "There's not much in tha way of a bitch seat, but ya should be fine. Have ya ridden much before?"

Collynn almost drooled again. It was a beautiful bike. "I've ridden a few times. If I can keep my big ass on the back of a tiny Sportster, I'll be fine on your Dyna."

"But it's a fine arse, love." Chibs gave her a wink before making his way over to his bike and straddling it. He was impressed that she could recognize what his bike was, and he wanted to kick himself for commenting on her fine, fine arse.

Collynn's stomach fluttered as she slid onto the bike behind him, pulling her feet up to the pegs and wriggling close to him. She carefully placed the gauze over her stitches and settled her helmet over her braided hair.

When he started the bike, she wrapped her arms loosely around his stomach, trying to nonchalantly find out exactly what he had going on underneath the baggy work shirt and leather kutte he was wearing.

Collynn laid her cheek against the reaper patch at his back and contentedly watched the world pass her by. She was comforted by his scent, a mixture of motor oil, leather, tobacco, and aftershave, and she felt like she was momentarily untouchable.

When they arrived at the dusty parking lot that housed Cara Cara, she spied her dad seated on his god forsaken Fat Boy and smoking a cigarette. She couldn't believe that the bike was still in existence.

She shook her head as she dismounted Chibs' bike. "Why in the hell do you still have that thing?!" She cried exasperatedly.

When she was a kid, Bobby had come to visit her, and they went for a ride on his Fat Boy. To make a long story short, the fucking thing broke down and her dad had to lay the bike down on the side of the highway. Collynn was lucky that Bobby had told her to jump before he laid the damn thing down. She got away with only a couple of patches of road rash, but she was still horrified to see that the bike hadn't yet been melted down into aluminum cans.

"Oh, come on, Colls. I've had it for so long. It was my first brand new bike." Bobby gave her a sad look. She scoffed. She patented that puppy dog look.

"Yeah! And it's going to kill someone," she huffed angrily as she peeled her helmet and the gauze off of her head.

"We've been telling him tha same thing, love. He just won' listen, the stubborn old man." Chibs grinned and shook his head, swinging his leg back over his bike to stand next to her.

Bobby scoffed, an exact mimicry of the scoff his daughter gave him a moment before. "Who are you calling an old man? You're only a few years younger than I am!"

Chibs' cheeks reddened a bit and his well-trimmed goatee twitch a little. He was slightly embarrassed at his age. He didn't want to admit that he was old enough to be Collynn's dad, feeling a bit lecherous at the thoughts that crossed his mind while she clung to him on the ride over. He shook it off and retorted, "What are ya talkin' about? I'm not a day over thirty. Look at my complexion. It's flawless."

Collynn let out a short laugh and shot him a smile.

"What are you doing here, pumpkin? Did you need something?" Bobby's face grew concerned as he scanned his daughter, looking for any additional injuries.

"Yeah, I wanted to sit down and figure out what the plan was. I can't hide out in Charming forever, dad." Collynn rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly and Bobby nodded.

"Well, let's get inside and talk. It's too fucking hot out here." Bobby waved Collynn and Chibs inside the building. It was time to finally show his kid a little bit more of his profession than just being Bobby Elvis.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Sorry for the crazy wait on the update! I'm a little rusty and couldn't keep the cheese-factor in check, but I hope you guys enjoy!

* * *

A moth. A Death's-Head Moth. It was stretched along the corner of Collynn's shoulder, wrapping itself both delicately and menacingly around it. Chibs couldn't stop staring at it. He tried to pry his eyes away, but he kept being dragged back to it. The moth drifted into a pair of old fashioned silhouettes of a cat and a little boy on the back of her arm.

Chibs was fascinated by Collynn's tattoos as they sat in the office of Cara Cara. They were seated at the small, round table in the corner of the surprisingly clean room. Collynn had filched a notepad from Luann's desk and was writing frantically as she waited for Bobby to start talking. The shock of the previous few days had almost completely worn off, subsequently scaring off the cavalier attitude that she had managed to pull together.

To say that she was feeling lost was a bit of an understatement. Her overwhelmingly type-A personality kicked in and forced her to separate the page into quadrants and labeled them in a messy, cursive scrawl. In one corner, she wrote "Job," in the other, she scribbled "House." She headed the third with "Not Getting Arrested," and the fourth with "Fuck."

Bobby smiled wanly and covered her ticking hand with his own in a comforting grasp. He recognized her panic and wanted to diffuse it as quickly as possible. Ever since she was a girl, she had horrible anxiety, and Bobby knew that her behavior would only continue to rachet up until she had torn her cuticles to shreds or hyperventilated.

Collynn looked down at Bobby's hand with a thankful expression. The gratefulness that she had felt quickly morphed into horror. A gasp of dismay escaped her. She was still wearing that _bastard's_ ring. How could she not have noticed that it was still sitting snugly on her left hand?

"Fuck!" She let out a shriek and yanked the small diamond from her finger and launched it to the other side of the office. It ricocheted off of something and landed on the linoleum with a small 'plink.' She laid her head down on the smooth vinyl of the tabletop and took a deep breath.

It was when Bobby tried again to comfort his distraught daughter that Chibs decided to make his exit. He didn't need to be here for this. He wouldn't want any of his friends around if his Kerrianne was falling apart like that. He had no business being there. He gave a short nod to Bobby and made his way out of the office.

"Dad. What did I do?" Collynn whispered into the surface of the table. It was like the world was threatening to swallow her whole. At that moment, she wouldn't have minded if it did.

"You survived, Pumpkin. You fought like hell, and you survived. I know it seems so big right now, but it will get better. You will get better." He gave her a watery smile as she lifted her head back upright.

"Where do I go from here? What can I do now?"

"Well, you could always come home to Charming. It doesn't have to be right now, but eventually..." Bobby would love to have his daughter back as a regular presence in his life, and he thought it might do her some good to be around more of a family unit than remaining stranded on her own personal island.

Collynn pressed her lips together into a hard stitch of a line and took a steadying breath. She slid the notepad back in front of her. She needed to think logically and clearly about what her next steps were. She needed to treat herself as if she were her own client. What would look the best to the jury, so to speak.

"I need to go back to my house. At least for a while. I'm not in any place to make big decisions right now. I don't want to fuck anything up by picking up and running. That is suspicious as hell. I may need to take some time off of actually showing up at work, so I don't draw any attention." The words fell out of her mouth in a rush, and it felt good to think clearly about it.

Bobby nodded in agreement and pointed to the notebook. "May I?"

Collynn promptly slid the pad over to him with a small smile. As unkempt as Bobby Munson appeared, he was the man who taught her how to fill out a matrix in order to solve all of her problems. It seems like this problem, too, was one for the matrix.

"Okay, so you don't have to worry about anyone ever finding him. We pay our cleaner way too much for that shit to ever happen." His own mouth formed a tight line as he put a bullet under the "Don't Get Arrested" portion of the paper.

Carefully, he wrote _No body, no proof_.

"That's a…relief?" Collynn's voice went up at the end of the sentence, but her mind was put at ease, nonetheless. Her dad was one of the more paranoid people she'd ever known, and she was a criminal defense attorney. If he was confident in the skill of their waste management services, then so was she.

"I'm not sure how long it will take for all of my swelling to go down and stitches to come out, but I can do what I can with the bruising. Orange concealer should take care of most of the purple." Collynn blew out a breath and scribbled an item in the "Job" section. She wasn't looking forward to trying to cover this shit up, but if it was what needed to be done, then it would be done.

 _Take off through Wednesday at work and buy drag makeup._

The pair of them continued much in the same manner until they had a full notebook page of plans.

Where it currently stood, Collynn would call her boss and attempt to get someone to cover for her Monday morning juvenile arraignments and do her best to relax and heal until then. Bobby had told her to set up camp at the clubhouse for the few days of reprieve she would have as someone would always be either coming or going. She was okay with that.

She would need to replace the door in her bathroom. It was the only evidence left that anything other than a peaceful Thursday evening had passed in her home. She would take things as they came and make a more long-term decision once she was on more steady ground.

Looking at their handiwork, she felt infinitely better. There was something distinctly comforting about putting things down on paper. She studied it closely because she knew that the page would have to be burned momentarily.

"See? It works." Bobby stated smugly, noting the look of relief crossing her face.

"Yes, yes it does."

"Okay, let's get out of here. I'm hungry, and I'm sure someone's got food going over at the clubhouse." Bobby stood and stretched. They had spent a long ass time poring over their master plan.

Collynn gave a small yawn and followed him to her feet. She folded the page neatly and trudged behind him and out into the parking lot. She lit the edge of the paper on fire and tossed it onto the gravel lot. They both stood there and watched it turn to ash. They say that fire was purifying, and in that moment, it was.

* * *

After a harrowing ride on the Fat Boy that Collynn would block from memory forever, they arrived at the clubhouse to a small crowd of people. They could hear the bass from a speaker putting off a ground shaking beat. Collynn looked at Bobby in alarm.

"People?" Her voice sounded small as she crossed her arms in front of her. She looked like a monster and this was really not how she wanted to make her first appearance.

"Sorry, Pumpkin. It's a bit of a habit on the weekend. I'll take you around it and get you settled. You look exhausted." Bobby pushed a crazy lock of graying hair behind his ear as he surveyed the clubhouse, thinking about the best way to approach cutting by everyone. He put his hand in the middle of her back to guide her as she stifled another large yawn.

The sun was starting to go down and it made the summer evening air crisp with an edge of coolness. They made their way toward the TM garage that was blessedly devoid of all humans. It was like a miracle that they didn't run into anyone on their way up to the apartments above the clubhouse. A miracle that had Gemma written all over it.

"If you're hungry, I can bring something up to you. I think the old ladies are putting something together right now." Bobby rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. He didn't really know where to go from here.

"Thanks, dad. I'd appreciate that. I haven't really eaten anything today." Collynn offered him a grateful smile. "I don't know what I would've done without your help this week."

He returned her smile and pulled her into a gentle hug. "Well no shit. You're my little girl. I'm just glad that I happen to be in the right line of work to help."

She laughed as she left the embrace and opened the door to the apartment that she slept in the night before. He looked at her one more time, checking her over to make sure that she really did seem okay, before turning away and heading back toward the throng of people outside of the clubhouse.

Collynn could not contain her yawns as she toed off her shoes by the door. She wiped at her bleary eyes with one hand while the other pulled the hair tie off the end of her braid. It felt like heaven as she shook out her hair, rubbing her scalp to ease the stiffness. Collynn felt that taking your hair down at the end of a long day rivaled the bliss of shirking the bra after work.

Slowly, she stripped out of her clothes and stretched like a cat before pulling on a pair of comfy gray sleep shorts and an ancient Alice Cooper t-shirt that had the neck cut out. In a misguided effort toward normalcy, Collynn removed the towel that she hung over the mirror and peered at herself with a grimace.

Over the course of the day, the marks on her neck had faded to a graying yellow, which she could be thankful for. Her nose, however, looked even more bruised and she had taken on the look of a racoon. She rolled her eyes and turned away from the mirror, settling in on the bed, lying with her head at the foot. It always helped her think.

While she felt better about her future as far as not spending her life in prison was concerned, she still felt so uneasy. Her mind would not stop racing about the other aspects of her life. How could she just slip back into her normal life? After the previous few days, returning to routine felt almost humdrum. It was almost like she needed to classify her life now as B.M.M.A.F. (Before Murdering my Asshole Fiancé) and A.M.M.A.F. (After Murdering my Asshole Fiancé). The "before" felt like a hundred years ago.

How could she go back to sleeping in that place? How could she cook in the kitchen where she was, not only attacked, but forced to kill the man that she thought she was going to spend the rest of her life with.

What changed? What changed in _him_? She was perplexed. In the previous few weeks, Collynn hadn't had much time for him, or anything, for that matter. They'd both been distant from each other, but Collynn figured that it was just things and work ratcheting up for the both of them.

She'd read a description of the love between a man and his wife in a novel once and it had stuck with her. The love they had (or at least Collynn thought they had) for each other was never going to be the talk of bards or poets, but it was logical and strong. There wasn't a burning passion, but more of a comfortable thrum. There were worse things to be than comfortable in life, and Collynn was okay with that.

A small tickle in the back of her brain flared up when she thought of pre-murder Trent. She struggled to suss out what synapse was trying to fire and put everything together for her, but she was unable to. She put it away to worry about later.

A knock at the door nearly made her jump off the bed.

"Come in!" She called out, rolling her eyes at her shaking voice. She figured it was just Bobby making good on his promise of food.

The door opened with a deft creak and her eyes met kind brown ones, albeit upside down. It wasn't her best angle. For the second time in a minute, she nearly jumped off the bed in surprise. Quickly, she pulled herself upright, hoping that she didn't flail too ungracefully.

"Sorry, I din't mean to scare ya." Chibs offered with a grin. "Yer da said tha' ya migh' be hungry." It was only then that Collynn noticed the two plates of food that he had in tow.

"If you're bringing me food in bed, scare me all you fucking want." She laughed lightly and stood to greet him.

His smile turned roguish at her sentiment. "Well, I hope ye don' mind tha' I eat with ye. Figured ye migh' want comp'ny. It's also gettin' a bit crazy down there." To Chibs, she looked a fair bit younger than she had even that morning. Her eyes seemed a bit brighter. Her hair was also down and acting as a wild mane around her shoulders. He had to fight back the imagery of sinking his hands into it. Internally, he kicked himself repeatedly.

"That would be nice." She was touched that anyone aside from her dad would want to go out of their way to keep her company. He handed her the plate and her mouth watered. She had to bite back a groan when she saw that there were baby back ribs and potatoes taking up most of her plate. She was only sad that she couldn't smell anything with the swelling in her nose.

Collynn was expecting an odd look from the older man when she plopped onto the floor, cross-legged like a child and her back supported by the bed, but was pleasantly surprised when he did the same, pulling two bottles of beer out from under his arm. She smiled approvingly and used the hem of her t-shirt to undo the twist top of the beer bottle.

"Did ye an' yer da figure things out earlier?" Chibs asked before taking a bite of his food.

"Yeah, I feel a lot better about things. Not great, but better. My dad is a master planner. I come by it honest, I guess." Collynn said, barking a small, humorless laugh.

When Collynn finally did bite into the ribs on her plate, she really did groan. "Oh my god. Who the fuck made these? Are they an angel?"

"Tha'd be Gem. Tha' woman has a way with a grill tha' no man will ever understand." Chibs laughed.

"Well, I need lessons from her then."

They ate in companionable silence for a few moments before Chibs eyed her t-shirt and his eyes lit with familiarity. "Trash? Really?" He nearly guffawed. Collynn was wearing a 20-year anniversary t-shirt for an Alice Cooper album that came out when he was nearly her age. Oh Jesus, now he felt old. That album was creeping up on 30 years now.

"Hey! I've had this shirt since I was a teenager. Be nice. It's from my first rock concert." Her cheeks flooded with warmth.

"No shame, darlin'. More admiration than anythin'. I remember when tha' album came out. Makin' me feel really old, love."

"What? Oh, shut up. You're not a day over thirty, remember?" She dropped him a wink that, under normal circumstances would look pretty garish with such horrible bruising, but Chibs hardly noticed it.

"Very true, love. Very true." He grinned at her, the scars on his cheeks marring the endearing dimples on either side of his face. "So, tell me more abou' yerself. It looks like yer gonna be stickin' aroun' for a minute."

Collynn mulled over his request and took a long swig of her beer, relishing in the slight bitterness and carbonation.

"Well, I'm twenty-five. My middle name is Mickey, which I could just about kill my dad for. I graduated from law school last spring and I work with mostly juveniles in criminal defense right now. Um…I have a dog back home that I am missing terribly. She's just the best. I was previously engaged, but that ended very recently. I love horror movies and reading. That's pretty much it. What about you?" She summed up her entire life fairly succinctly and washed it down with another swig of beer.

"Wait. Tha's a lot to unpack, there." Chibs' eyes were downright gleeful. "Isn't yer las' name Rourke?"

Collynn sighed and hung her head in mock shame. "'Tis I. Collynn Mickey Rourke. My dad made sure that I kept my mom's name, simply so he could name me after someone he thought was a badass at the time. We all can't have cool knife-y nicknames, man. We just can't."

His peals of laughter startled her, but soon had her giggling along with him. His laugh was rich, deep, and infectious. It felt good to laugh, even if what they were laughing at wasn't really all that funny.

When they finally reigned in their laughter, Collynn was wiping tears from her eyes and Chibs' cheeks were sore. He really didn't laugh much, but he felt like years were just added to his life. He reveled in the fact that this woman was actually laughing along with him. She'd been through hell the past few days but could still manage a giggle or two when the time came for it.

"I was tryin' ta figure it out earlier, but wha' are the tattoos on yer arms? It's really good work." He nodded to her left arm, the one he'd been staring at earlier in the day.

Collynn smiled proudly and rolled the sleeve of her t-shirt up as high as she could. "It's my homage to the greats of horror." She stifled a small yawn and prattled off the names of each of the pieces that made up her patchwork sleeve. He was impressed. Whoever did the work knew what the hell they were doing. Each of the pieces were delicate but still imposing, and not obnoxiously over the top.

Chibs nodded appreciatively. Over the past few minutes, he noticed how heavy her eyes were getting and how often she was holding back from yawning. It didn't take a mind reader as she wasn't exactly stealthy about it.

"Alrigh' darlin', it's time fer me ta leave ya alone. Yer practically fallin' asleep on me." She blinked slowly at him, almost in defiance and he rolled his eyes. "Gimme yer trash an' go to bed, lass."

"Okay. But I'm asking all the questions next time. I didn't get a single thing out of you." She swallowed yet another yawn and got to her feet, handing him her plate. "Thanks again. For everything. For patching me up yesterday, and the food and all of your kindness." She had to stop herself from rambling

"O'course." He winked at her and she smiled back sleepily. "I will give ye one bit of information. My real name is Phillip."

Her grin was as radiant as it could be considering that she was dead on her feet. "Goodnight, Phillip."

He returned her grin as he stepped out the door, "G'nigh', lass. Sleep well."


End file.
